The present invention relates to vertical display panel units and particularly to a portable folding display unit having improved frame construction, hinges, and fastening devices for interconnecting adjacent panel units.
Vertical display panels are used by educators, for displaying course materials and the like, and by manufacturers and other businessmen to display their materials at trade shows, sales meetings and the like, and are generally useful in many similar or related situations. Particularly in the case of displays to be used by manufacturers, educators, and salesmen to disclose and display the same materials at several successive exhibitions it is desirable for display panel units to be quickly and easily erected or disassembled and packed for shipping. Displays which are difficult to set up require longer lead time. Added costs are incurred when displays must be shipped ahead to be erected in advance of the scheduled opening of an exhibition, instead of merely being carried as baggage accompanied by the personnel who will be making presentations illustrated by the displays.
Preferably, such display devices are sturdy enough to support not only printed material but small samples or models. Nevertheless the display devices should be as light in weight as possible consistent with the required strength, so that the costs of shipping displays by air carrier are minimized, and so that the displays may be carried and set up easily by people of ordinary size and strength.
It is highly desirable that a display unit have no loose connecting parts or pieces which might be lost during travel or the process of erection or disassembly of a display. Nevertheless, a display unit should be capable of being packed in containers small enough to be carried in passenger vehicles, when possible, in order to minimize transportation difficulties.
Ideally, the above-described desirable features could be provided in an inexpensive display unit. Additionally, it is desirable to provide a display device which permits exchange of panels including permanently affixed display material, and which permits internal illumination of a display unit.
In the past, sturdy, lightweight panel display units have been constructed with wooden frames surrounding lightweight synthetic plastic foam core material. Protective metal frame members are attached to the wooden frame by wood screws and similar fasteners, because no better or more economical construction has been generally known to the industry, although use of such fasteners is undesirably time-consuming and expensive. For displays of significant height, upper panel sections have been connected to lower panel sections by pin-and-socket arrangements which are only marginally satisfactory, as they are difficult to align for assembly and may be difficult to disassemble because of the tendency of the pin-and-socket arrangements to become jammed because of misalignment.
Laterally adjacent individual panel members have previously been interconnected by hinges which must be pinned together during erection of the display unit assembly. Separation of the hinged members upon disassembly of a display has presented the risk of loss of hinge pins and related fasteners. As a result, the previously known display units for portable displays have been less than satisfactory in their cost, their weight, and their convenience for assembly and disassembly.
What is desired, then, is an improved vertical panel display device which is sturdy, yet light in weight, inexpensive to manufacture, and easy to assemble during manufacture, and which permits repeated interconnection and separation of upper and lower panel units without difficulty, and which permits displays to be folded and packed for transportation without disassembly and potential loss of parts of hinges or other interconnecting devices.